Moldova has regressed as regards prevention and combating of corruption

Moldova ranked the 113th in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2007 that covered 180 countries. Last year, Moldova placed the 81st of 163 countries. The poorer ranking shows a regress as regards the prevention and combating of corruption, the interim executive director of Transparency International Moldova Efrim Obreja told a news conference on Wednesday. According to Obreja, the public functionaries do not fully realize the danger of corruption, while some of the public institutions have a formal or superficial attitude towards the National Strategy for Preventing and Combating Corruption that is under implementation. A negative aspect is the non-adoption of the law on the public functionary’s code of conduct, the law on the conflict of interests and the law on the funding of political parties and election campaigns. The national legislation was not adjusted to the international conventions as regards the immunity of certain categories of persons and the criminal liability for corruption offences. The interim executive director of Transparency International Moldova says that the authorities centred more on the fight against corruption and not on its prevention. The lower ranking shows that we have a lot of work to do in this direction, not yet that the authorities dealing with the implementation of the National Strategy for Preventing and Combating Corruption achieved no results, Victor Colin, division head at the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crimes, told the same conference. According to the cited source, the European Union standards are observed in the fight against corruption and this fact was noted by European experts. The current reforms implemented in the country focus on the reduction in corruption levels. Colin said that the drought and the non-resumption of the wine exports to Russia, which affected the national economy, also contributed to a poorer ranking in 2007. In the Corruption Perceptions Index, a clean score of 10 means lack of corruption while 1 signifies total corruption. Moldova scored 2.8 points and placed the 3rd among the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States by the Corruption Perceptions Index, after Georgia and Armenia. In 2005, Moldova ranked the 95th of 159 countries.